Assorted trivia, in no particular order!
1. The first review on Milliblog was of A R Rahman’s Ah Aah (Tamil), posted on July 22, 2005. But, it was on July 17, 2005 that I first decided to start Milliblog!
2. In 5 years, number of soundtracks reviewed includes, Hindi – 345, Tamil – 293, Telugu – 72, Kannada – 45, Malayalam – 20 and 97 non-film musical albums.
3. 59 films too have been reviewed, much to my own surprise!
4. There are totally 62 reviews so far, in 5 years, that received 200 words!
5. The first soundtrack to receive a 200 word review was Yuvan Shankar Raja’s Pudhupettai. It was not by design – it just happened that I could not control the word count to 100 and decided to make an exception.
6. The composers who have got the maximum 200 word reviews,
– A R Rahman – 5
– Amit Trivedi – 4 (excluding soundtracks or albums where he was partly involved)
– Yuvan Shankar Raja – 3
– Shankar Ehsaan Loy – 3
7. Debutants who got 200 word reviews on Milliblog,
– Amit Trivedi, for his filmy debut, Aamir
– Piyush Mishra, for Gulal
– SS Kumaran, for Poo
8. The only 300 word review on Milliblog, of course, is Delhi 6. So far.
9. The first ever comment I got was from a user named Jacky, on my review of Rahman’s Mangal Pandey – this was the 2nd review on Milliblog.
10. If I were to recall one (only one) musical piece that I waited with bated breath to review, it would be Mithoon’s The Train. I remember getting really excited when I heard ‘Woh ajnabi’ in the promo.
11. The 2 albums that I’m most proud of reviewing based on the sheer exposure this little blog gave them – Raman Mahadevan’s Ramanasia and Thaalam, a Malayalam pop album.
12. From a personal experience, 2 composers who give the maximum bump to this blog’s page views – A R Rahman (obvious) and Yuvan Shankar Raja (not-so-obvious).
13. Posts which have got maximum comments (all 50+ comment posts, so far)
– Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (Tamil – A R Rahman) – 94
– Komaram Puli (Telugu – A R Rahman) – 87
– Raavan (Movie review) – 63
– Delhi 6 (Hindi – A R Rahman) – 60
– Raavan (Hindi – A R Rahman) – 58
– Radio (Hindi – Himesh Reshammiya) – 58
– Blue (Hindi – A R Rahman) – 54
14. The post I took maximum time to research and plan is ‘Ilayaraja in my life‘…one of my personal favorites.
15. The post I had maximum fun writing was the bizarro review of Ghajini…after I saw the frenzied responses to my original 100 word review where I had panned it.
16. The film review that gave Milliblog maximum exposure was the one for Love Aaj Kal.
17. The film reviews that I’m personally very, very proud of – Gwoemul (Korean, Joon-ho Bong) and Tempus Fugit (Catalan, Enric Folch)
If I were to look back at this eventful journey of sharing my opinions, I’d say I loved every moment I spent on it and will gladly continue to do it…forever.
Film music was treated with immense respect in India, back in the 50s, 60s and even 70s. It was a limited commodity back then and people had limited avenues to listen/enjoy it. The 80s and 90s opened the floodgates not only with the avenues for access to film music but also the overall output. Starting 2000 onwards, we had nothing but an explosion of film music where it has almost become commoditized.
I’ve had my share of collecting film music in cassette tapes and used to treasure them with great care. So, when I seem to treat with such nonchalance of writing 100 word reviews, it only means how far we’ve come. People can still talk of choices and how a 100 word review trivializes film music (even as I praise it no end), but the problem of excessive choice is not limited to film music alone. Almost everything nowadays offers us limitless choice and film music is no exception.
I lead a busy, fast-paced life and I wanted a source for knowing the kind of music I (personally) should listen to. I also wanted it to go beyond the 2 languages I know well – Hindi and Tamil, since I strongly believe that language should not be a barrier in enjoying music from your own country. If we Indians do not listen to our own country’s music, who else will?
The result of all the above was Milliblog.
Thank you for reading this blog! Let me do a summary of the 10 years of Milliblog in July 2015!
